Payment technology company Paythru has launched a solution designed to combine parking and electric vehicle (EV) charging into a single transaction to make both processes more efficient.
The solution, named Park and Charge, is highly customisable and manages payment through cloud software, according to Paythru. It was built to support easy implementation with operators’ other payment apps, websites or terminals.
Many public and private car parking locations asks the user to buy both a parking tickets and to separately purchase a charging session, with both often being operated by different companies.
Paythru claims there is growing frustration among EV users, especially those who were unaware that these were separate transactions. The Paythru solution was developed as a response to this.
James O’Neill, CEO of Paythru, said: “Instead of building yet another app we’ve built a platform in the cloud.
“This means parking companies and charging companies just sign up, set their payment terms behind the scenes, and the user has one transparent transaction to pay for everything – which could be either through the car park or their EV charging app.
“Whatever they choose, we manage the payment split and make sure the parking and charging companies both get paid.
“This is the first application for consumers that recognises the need to park and charge.
“The EV revolution will stall unless we get the customer experience right and no one’s actually addressing this – until now.
“Having previously spent years working at EV charging providers, I have seen the impact of poor user payment experience on customer loyalty.”
When a session is initiated using Paythru’s Park and Charge, the system automatically starts the EV charge at the connected chargepoint, and is compatible with both time-based and kWh-based tariffs.
According to the company, this approach not only improves the user experience but also significantly mitigates the risk of penalty charge notices.
Park and Charge is aimed at public sector charge point operators, parking operators who want to add EV functionality to their offering and fleet and last mile logistics customers.
The solution was produced to also support on and off-street parking options and can be connected to parking enforcement companies.
